John H. wrote in
:

My friend in Holland is wanting my to try Skype. I've not done
so yet,
because with the digital from Cox, calling Holland is very
cheap. It was
much cheaper with VOIP. I know nothing about it.
--
John H



Just download free and install. You can call your friend's Skype
for FREE....about as cheap as you can get....ZERO...NADA...FREE.

Talk as long as you like. You are connected DIRECTLY to him, not
through a money machine server of some VOIP company. That's why
it's free....as it should be.

You may also, even while talking to him, see each other on your
webcams, swap any files directly, use the chat window to share
URLs and other not-so-easy-to-convey-in-voice things like
URLs....again, all free as you are connected directly to him.

Who pays for all this, you might ask. YOU DO! If you open a
port sniffer like TCPView, you'll see other Skypers connected to
you, just like you'll see you connected to others using their
system to relay your Dutch friend's data to you. This is NOT how
the phone call is routed...this is how your contact list, which
is stored on Skype's server, eliminating you entering it in every
Skype device, is stored. When you open any Skype device, your
contact list comes down from the other Skyper's supernode Skype
connects to, to you. A distributed system, not some VoIP company
depending on servers in one or a few places, Skype self-heals
when the guy you're connected to shuts down his computer or his
Skype. It uses almost no bandwidth and costs you nothing in
speed or time. It's just a few control codes and encrypted text.
The other guy cannot see your contact list, even with his packet
sniffer. Skype is encoded with 256-bit encryption and would take
a supercomputer a LONG time to decrypt, making it quite
secure....more secure than your government-controlled VoIP
company like Vonage, etc. Skype is in Luxembourgh, even though
it is run by Englishmen. Luxembourgh imposes no taxes on
it....unlike the UK taxed to death. You pay no taxes to anyone
to use Skype, even the bureaucrats in the USA or Canada. The
distributed system would be a helluva nightmare to trace through
the millions of Skype users online, 8,674,812 at 1:05PM on
Saturday as I type this. Skype tells you how many are online at
the bottom to choose from. Call any of them you can find. They
don't normally bite and can be very friendly. To find out, just
go from ONLINE to SKYPE ME status and the whole Skype world can
find you. Great fun if you're bored.....(c;

You have nothing to lose....just do it!

Larry
--
Isn't it ironic that the same ISPs that are telling you
you're downloads threaten their networks......
.....are testing 100Gbps TV to sell on the SAME systems?
http://tinyurl.com/27qx3v